When Hayama-sensei and Terano-sensei show up to school one day, everyone can see that something’s up between them. The shared looks, the blushes… Sure enough with nary a panel’s worth of prevarication, it turns out that Hayama Asuka, the gym teacher and Terano Saki, the science teacher, are dating. News gets around pretty quickly, but students, teachers and administration have no complaints, in fact, it is pretty universally agreed that they are darling together. It’s all good in Pikachi Ohi’s Our Teachers Are Dating!, Volume 1.

I’ve been raving about this series since it’s launch in Comic Yuri Hime in August 2018, for a number of key reasons. The most important part is that it is so incredibly adorable and charming, with oodles of sugary sweetness, your biggest problem is worrying about tooth decay. ^_^

But in small, yet significant ways, this series, as moe as it explicitly is for the characters and even, for once, this reader, Ours Teacher Are Dating! actually treads some new ground. First and foremost, both Terano-sensei and Hayama-sensei are wholly equals in both a personal and professional sense. They are eachers, of an age, of very similar personality and admirably suited to one another. We don’t *actually* get that all that often in any romance manga. Stories, even romances, are driven mostly by conflict, and opposite types make for good easy conflict. Here conflict is driven by communication issues. What conflicts we do have are exceptionally small and personal, relatable, if we work from the idea of two extremely shy adults have who never had to feel or deal with any of this.

Secondly – and this is a bit of a handwave, something we must accept without question – everyone around Hayama-sensei and Terano-sensei are absolutely fine with this and have overtly, publicly, accepted their relationship. This will continue as the story goes on. Small, personal miscommunications / world-changingly huge public acceptance. Friends, family, colleagues, even new encounters with queer folks. Hayama-sensei and Terano-sensei will change their world for being visible within it. I can testify to that from personal experience. ^_^

All that said, what we read this book and it’s following volumes for is the sheer joy Hayama-sensei and Terano-sensei take in one another’s company. There is a sex scene, but it is arguably not very service-y at all, as it presented as two adults learning about each other in a realistic and uncontrived scene.

Technically, this book is quite wonderful. Erika Teriquez’s lettering absolutely captures the fully goofiness of our lovestruck protagonists. Jennifer Ward’s translation, and Rebecca Scoble’s adaptation all give us the seamless feeling we look for in an English-language edition of a manga.

Emotionally and physically, Hayama-sensei and Terano-sensei give freely of themselves and we get to enjoy their enjoyment of these new feelings and experiences.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Super fluffy and adorable
Story – 8 Fluffy love story
Characters – 9 Fluffy lovers
Service – 3 Some nudity and underwear
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

Another authentic manga reading experience, a great Yuri manga, Our Teacher’s Are Dating! by Pikachi Ohi is an absolute delight for anyone who loves love. ^_^ I look forward to you all telling me how squee-worthy they are. Okay-sauras!

Thanks very much to Seven Seas for the review copy!